学校是教书育人的地方，教是传播知识，育则是培养正确价值观和正向思维。教育局昨日向全港中小学公布《价值观教育课程架构》（试行版），首次将“勤劳”纳入首要价值观，同时进一步强调应从小加强学生的爱国爱港观念。新架构内容切中了香港所需，对于推动学生建立正确积极的价值观，具有重要作用。

　　价值观是判断是非对错、抉择取舍的标准。当人们对“应不应该这样做”、“这样做对不对”进行判断并付诸行动时，其实就是价值观在发挥作用。这些年来，香港社会出现一股不好的风气，例如耽于享乐、好逸恶劳等，说到底就是价值观出了偏差。例如那种被称为“躺平主义”的消极人生观，不仅会导致个人精神萎靡不振，也会使得整个社会向下坠落沉沦。

　　将“勤劳”列为中小学生的首要价值观，具有很强的针对性。中华民族以勤劳著称，中国传统文化视勤劳为美德，具体到中小学生的日常生活中，就是要勤奋学习，体谅父母的艰辛及尊重劳动阶层，积极参与各种劳动并借此锻炼强健体魄、磨炼毅力意志，成为自力更生、奋发上进、充满阳光气息的新一代。

　　近年来，在别有用心政客的误导下，一些学生不是将心思放在学习上，而是热衷搞政治、美化暴力、传播虚假及仇恨信息，参与各种违法活动，甚至勾连外力、鼓吹“港独”等，被捕者中不乏低年级学生，同样反映价值观扭曲。前年爆发的修例风波，彻底暴露了香港的深层次问题，其中之一就是教育出了问题。一些教师教育学生时，过分强调个人权利，不讲集体责任；过分标榜所谓“批判性思维”，丧失基本的是非对错；过分推崇西方价值观，抛弃了中国文化中讲究诚信、爱国等基本美德。

　　价值观虽然根植于内心，但并非与生俱来，主要是靠后天教育，学校在培养学生正确价值观方面扮演着重要角色。所谓“三岁看八十”、“七岁定终身”，培养正确价值观需要从小抓起，小树苗扶正了，才有机会长成栋梁之材。

　　培养学生正确价值观，离不开培养国民身份认同，这绝非乱港势力所攻击的“洗脑”。有国才有家，尊重及爱护自己的国家，必要时挺身而出捍卫国家安全，不分中外，古今相同。“先天下之忧而忧，后天下之乐而乐”、“苟利国家生死以，岂因祸福避趋之”，一直是中国知识分子的精神追求，现在的读书人又岂能例外？作为身处香港的中国人，爱国爱港是天经地义的事情。

　　有了正确价值观，人生就有了正确的航向，社会就有了正气。教育局将此当成大事来推动，方向正确。当然，言教不如身教，老师以身作则，家长积极引导，整个社会乐观向上，有助学生成为充满正能量的有为青年。十年树木，百年树人，要树立好的风气，需要久久为功。

　　2021-12-01

　　Correct values must be fostered from childhood

　　A school is a place to teach and cultivate people. To teach is to impart knowledge while to cultivate is to foster correct values and positive thinking. The Education Bureau yesterday released the Value Education Curriculum Framework (2021) for all primary and secondary schools across the city. It includes diligence as one of the priority values for the first time and further stresses that pupils should be taught from childhood the ideas of patriotism and love of Hong Kong. The new curriculum framework responds to what is needed in Hong Kong. It is of significance for helping students to establish correct and positive values.

　　Values are criteria to judge what is right or wrong and help make a choice. In fact when people make a judgement on "whether this should be done" or "whether this is right", it is their values that are functioning. These years, there appears some bad mood in Hong Kong society, such as indulgence in pleasure or seeking after comforts while abominating labour. This is in fact a result of our values erring on the side of going astray. For instance, the so-called "lying-flatism" [doing the bare minimum to get by], a passive outlook on life, not only leads a person to become low in spirits but also drags whole society down into degradation.

　　It is very on point to list diligence as a priority value for primary- and secondary-school students. The Chinese nation is well known for being diligent and traditional Chinese culture regards diligence as a virtue. For practice in daily life, this requires primary- and secondary-school students to learn with assiduity, to understand their parents' arduousness and to respect the working class, to actively engage in all kinds of manual labour and take the opportunity to harden their bodies and strengthening their willpower and stamina, so that they could become a new generation which is self-reliant, enthusiastic to forge ahead and full of sunny aroma.　　

　　In recent years, mislead by some politicians with ulterior motives, some students have not kept their minds on their studies but become keen on taking part in political activities. They have beautifies violence, spread fake and hatred-inciting information, taken part in various kinds of law-breaking activities, and even hooked up with foreign forces and advocated for "independence for Hong Kong", etc. Among the arrestees there are quite many students in the lower grades. This also shows a distortion of values.　　The Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill turmoil started two years ago fully exposes the deeply-rooted problems in Hong Kong, one of which is that something has gone wrong with our education. Some teachers in their classrooms have over-emphasised personal rights and overlooked collective responsibilities; have over-advertised so-called "critical thinking" out of the elementary value judgement on what is right or wrong; have over-praised Western values while casting aside the elementary virtues in Chinese culture of upholding integrity and patriotism.

　　While rooted in one's heart, values are by no means in one's blood but mainly nurtured through education. Schools play an important role in nurturing students with correct values.　　As a proverb has it that "the child is father of the man", fostering correct values must start from childhood. Only when it is set upright, can a sapling potentially grow to be used as a pillar.

　　Fostering students with correct values cannot do without nurturing them with their national identity. This is by no means "brain-washing" as smeared by trouble-making elements. Without a country one can hardly have a home. It is a shared value, inside China or outside and in ancient or present times, to respect and cherish one's own country and, when necessary, to throw oneself forward to safeguard national security.　　"To be the first to bear hardships and the last to enjoy comforts", "I will do whatever for the benefit of my country by my life or death and never try to evade my duty regardless of my personal weal and woe", these are always the spiritual pursuit of Chinese intellectuals. How could educated people today be exceptional? It is unquestionably right and proper for us, as Chinese nationals living in Hong Kong, to love our country and Hong Kong.

　　With correct values, a person has correct orientation in life and society has righteousness. The Education Bureau sees this as an important task to accomplish, which is in the correct direction. Needless to say, example is better than precept. It would help students to grow into promising young people full of positive energy, if teachers could live what they teach, parents give positive guidance and whole society become optimistic and progressive. It takes ten years to grow trees but a hundred years to rear people. To establish good social norms, long-standing efforts must be devoted.

　　01 December 2021